Buzz
When major scientific breakthroughs are discussed, botany—the study of plant life—often takes a backseat. It’s common to picture botanists as sweet elderly gardeners with small spades, planting flowers in the dirt.
In reality, botany is a cutting-edge field. It plays a crucial role in shaping more glamorous disciplines that grab headlines, like genetics, biotechnology, paleontology, and climate change research. Many recent botanical insights hold the potential to revolutionize the world.
10. Fungi Can Boost Crop Productivity
In 2014, researchers discovered how to harness the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi to enhance crop production while using fewer fertilizers.
It has long been known that plants rely on beneficial fungi in the soil to form mycorrhizae (fungal roots). These fungi have long filaments, known as hyphae, that extend to nutrients beyond the reach of the plant's own roots, enabling the plant to absorb these nutrients more effectively.
A research team, led by Dr. Michael Schultze from the Department of Biology at York University in England, has identified a protein—called a 'proton pump'—which serves as the connection between the fungi and plant root cells. This protein facilitates nutrient transfer to the plant. This discovery was published in *The Plant Cell*, a journal from the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Dr. Schultze explained that the mycorrhizae-specific proton pump could provide a way for agricultural scientists to boost crop yields while reducing fertilizer usage, leveraging the natural nutrient increase. Mineral fertilizers often contribute to environmental problems like soil erosion and groundwater contamination with nitrates and phosphates. High nitrate levels pose risks to human health, while phosphate pollution leads to algae blooms that consume oxygen as they decay—a phenomenon known as eutrophication.
9. Key Benefits of Corn—Beyond Pest Resistance
Bt corn, a well-known genetically modified variety treated with the bacterium *Bacillus thuringiensis*, is specifically designed to resist corn rootworms. These destructive pests from the American Midwest cause significant damage to crops in both their larval and adult beetle stages. The cost of corn rootworm damage to farmers is estimated to exceed $1 billion annually.
Bt corn defends itself by producing BT, a bacterial toxin that acts as an internal pesticide. This reduces the need for external pesticide applications. In addition to its clear benefits, studies have shown that Bt corn often outperforms expectations, yielding more than initially anticipated.
In 2012, Fred Below and Jason Haegele from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a study demonstrating that Bt corn enhances crop yields by improving nitrogen absorption and boosting nitrogen use efficiency. With fewer resources needed for pest control, the plants have more energy to develop healthier, more vigorous root systems, resulting in a significant increase in overall production.
Bt corn also offers valuable advantages for scientists researching root systems. When crops are grown in close proximity, protected from pests, they can form large, interconnected root systems. This provides researchers with an abundant resource to study root functions, opening up new possibilities for research and development.
8. Robots Inspired by Nature's Green Wonders
A team of researchers from an EU-funded initiative at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is exploring cutting-edge robotics, drawing inspiration from an unexpected source: plants.
Barbara Mazzolai leads the FP7-PLANTOID project, which seeks to design and develop both hardware and software solutions for robotics inspired by the fascinating behaviors of plants. This includes how plants move, sense their environment, and how their roots grow. While many may view plants as stationary, they actually exhibit movement—often in highly efficient ways.
The team has created a prototype that takes advantage of plant-like interactions with the world. This prototype includes a 3D-printed trunk and leaves capable of sensing temperature, gravity, and humidity, along with a root system that adapts and changes direction as needed. This marks the first time scientists have turned to plants for innovative solutions to challenges in robotics.
Mazzolai and her team aim to apply their work in various fields, including agriculture, medicine, and space exploration. They envision a future where robots, deployed on alien worlds, could implant themselves and use sensory data to adapt to extreme environments. Another potential application is the development of flexible endoscopic robots for navigating the human body during surgery.
The PLANTOID project has secured €1.6 million in funding from the EU and is expected to conclude by 2015. Currently, the team is working on a more advanced prototype with enhanced capabilities. Their goal is to create robots that can harvest energy from their surroundings and develop smarter machines that can learn from environmental cues to make informed decisions. You can track the project's progress and learn more here.
7. Innovations in Desert Farming
Recent advancements in desert farming techniques have led to intriguing discoveries about how plants form beneficial relationships with bacteria to enhance growth. These findings hold significant promise for practical applications in agriculture and beyond.
In a 2012 study published in *PLOS ONE*, researchers investigated the impact of drought on a pepper plant (*Capsicum annuum L.*) and analyzed the organisms growing around it under dry conditions. This was done by examining root systems and collecting samples from both cultivated and uncultivated soils.
The researchers discovered that, under drought conditions, the bacteria surrounding the pepper plants were enriched, resulting in up to a 40 percent increase in photosynthesis and biomass production.
As plant biologists delve deeper into how plants interact with the surrounding microorganisms, the concept of plants as “meta-organisms” is becoming more apparent. In this view, the plant’s microbiome is as integral to the organism as the plant itself. This research is especially important as climate change and expanding human populations are set to strain water resources and available agricultural land. These findings could help maintain high crop yields with minimal irrigation.
6. Advancements in Seaweed Farming
Algal blooms that close beaches and disrupt ecosystems have made algae an increasing environmental concern in recent years. Many view it as a nuisance, something that needs to be eradicated.
However, a group of researchers challenges this view. They explain, 'In our research, we flip the narrative and consider algae a resource. We gather excess algae along coastlines and cultivate new algae in the open sea.' Why take this approach?
Fredrik Grondahl, head of the Seafarm Project at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, envisions using algae as an abundant and cost-effective source for food, medicine, plastic, and biofuel. While humans utilize nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystem production, we tap into only about 1 percent of the ocean's potential.
Human activity, particularly excessive fertilization of the oceans (known as eutrophication), leads to overgrowth of algae. This creates problems, and to make matters worse, much of what we do harvest from the sea is exploitative. Trawling, for instance, damages marine life, killing countless creatures that aren’t used, all to obtain the fish sought by trawlers. Harnessing algae’s potential could dramatically change this scenario. Its incredible utility remains largely overlooked in Western cultures.
Algae is rich in vitamins, amino acids, and minerals. It can be consumed directly or processed into spices and oils. It also offers an alternative to environmentally harmful animal feeds. Brown algae, for instance, can yield three times as much sugar as sugar beets.
Grondahl’s Seafarm project cultivates algae on barrels, which are then harvested and processed on land through biorefining methods. His farm, along with similar initiatives, holds enormous potential to revolutionize industries worldwide.
Algae has been utilized by various countries for centuries. In particular, Japan has long incorporated it into their culture. Ireland, known for its deep-rooted seaweed traditions, has launched large-scale algae cultivation projects since 2010. Norway followed suit with similar initiatives in 2011. Could the sea farms once imagined by futurists finally be becoming a reality?
5. New Fungi Insights May Lead to Better Fungicides
A groundbreaking study from researchers at the University of Exeter in England, published in the October 2014 edition of *Nature Communications*, uncovered the mechanism by which most harmful fungi evade the immune defenses of the plants they attack. This discovery paves the way for the development of a new generation of highly effective fungicides.
Professor Gero Steinberg, a biosciences expert at UOE, has highlighted the significant threat posed by pathogenic fungi to global food security, noting that these fungi already cause billions of dollars in damages. He remarked, 'The losses of wheat, rice, and maize to fungal pathogens each year are equivalent to the entire annual budget of the US Department of Homeland Security—around $60 billion.'
Research has revealed that most pathogenic fungi infiltrate plants by injecting effector proteins, which help them avoid the plant's immune defenses. These fungi utilize specialized organelles, known as early endosomes, that serve as messengers, transporting proteins from the fungal cell’s nucleus to the plant's point of invasion. This process allows the fungus to enter the plant undetected.
By understanding how to block this invasive mechanism, scientists hope to develop more effective fungicides that can prevent fungal infections before they cause damage. Current fungicides often fail because pathogenic fungi can rapidly adapt to them due to their high growth rates.
4. Human Gut Microbes Could Aid in Plant Biofuels
To harness plants as biofuels, scientists need a method to efficiently break down plant cell walls. Traditionally, this is done by using certain microbes known for this ability, such as those found in cow rumens and termite intestines.
However, a 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences led by Professor Isaac Cann from the University of Illinois suggests a more promising alternative—microbes found in the human gut.
The study supports a previous hypothesis that gut microbes in humans can digest fiber and convert it into sugars, which are then fermented to produce nutrients for human cells. These sugars can also be used to feed yeast to generate ethanol and other liquid fuels. Notably, two human microbes—Bacteroides intestinalis and Bacteroides ovatus—are more efficient at breaking down complex plant fibers than those found in cows.
This finding holds significant potential not only for human health but also for the biofuels industry, offering the promise of major environmental benefits.
3. The Importance of Chinese Plant Diversity for Global Food Security
In recent decades, the West has had several reasons to look at China with admiration, and now there might be one more. A team of botanists from the University of Birmingham in the UK, in collaboration with Chinese partners, believes that the vast plant diversity in China could play a vital role in ensuring global food security in the years ahead.
China is home to over 20,000 species of higher plants. Among them, the researchers identified 871 native species known as crop wild relatives (CWR). These species are important due to their genetic ability to adapt and support the cultivation of 28 crucial global crops like rice, wheat, and soybeans. Some help improve crop resistance to cold or toxins, while others offer drought resistance or enhance nutritional qualities, such as protein content. Remarkably, 42% of these species are found nowhere else in the world.
However, the situation is not entirely optimistic. The research team discovered that at least 17% of these invaluable species are at risk of extinction and need urgent action. To address this, a comprehensive database of these species has been compiled, and efforts are underway to preserve them in gene banks to safeguard their unique traits.
The global importance of crop wild relatives (CWRs) and other wild plants in the fight against climate change and to maintain agricultural stability is just beginning to be recognized. Shelagh Kell, one of the researchers, highlighted the complex political issues at play and stressed the urgency, stating, "Immediate attention must be given to the conservation of China’s CWRs to ensure their availability for future crop improvement before they are lost forever."
2. Sound Vibrations Could Revolutionize Harvests
Across Europe, many nations have enacted comprehensive pesticide bans, which is pushing researchers to explore new methods of pest control. Could sound waves and odors eventually replace traditional pesticides? Researchers in Italy believe this might be possible.
Ilaria Pertot and her team, part of the EU-funded PURE Project, are experimenting with sound vibrations and pheromones to disrupt the mating patterns of common grape pests, including the European grape berry moth and the cicada species Scaphoideus titanus.
With grapes alone accounting for 38% of pesticide use across Europe, the potential environmental benefits of this research could be significant, even if it doesn’t become a universally applicable solution for pest control.
The researchers assert that, according to their findings so far, the methods they are developing are just as effective, if not more so, than traditional chemical pesticides, and may even have the potential to replace them entirely.
1. Trees with Enhanced Bio-Production Potential
Scientists from the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics have pioneered a new biotechnological approach: a method that boosts the biomass output of forest plantations without altering the trees’ growth rate, structure, or anatomy. This not only increases overall tree production without demanding additional resources but also has the potential to help combat global warming and improve energy security by enabling more wood to be produced in the same area.
They achieved this by modifying the expression of specific genes that control a process called 'syneptic branching' in trees. This process increases the number of branches, the size of the leaf area, and overall growth. The researchers believe their technique could be applied to any woody plant species.
Due to its potential for revolutionizing the bioenergy industry and energy markets, the process has been patented.
